Many household appliances are quite heavy and thus are difficult to move to allow the floor beneath such equipment to be adequately cleaned. For example, many homes have refrigerators, clothes dryers, washing machines and the like that are only rarely, if ever, moved to permit the floor beneath such appliance to be cleaned.
While the lifting art has proposed several designs for leveling appliances, see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 2,695,147, 4,182,506 and the like, such leveling devices are not suitable for eleVating such appliances high enough to permit the floor beneath such appliance to be fully cleaned. These leveling devices are designed to move an appliance only small amounts to keep it level.
Leveling and lifting are two different operations, and are subject to different considerations. The principal difference occurs because a leveling operation is concerned with elevating the appliance small amounts; whereas, a lifting operation elevates the appliance several times higher than a leveling operation. This increased height creates stability problems not present with the leveling operations.
To elucidate, a refrigerator, for example, lifted only an inch or so is still stable in the elevated position; however, the same refrigerator elevated five or six inches is not nearly so stable. For safety reasons it is imperative that the elevated appliance be stable, yet to adequately clean under an appliance, such appliance must be elevated at least five or six inches.
Therefore, there is a need for a system for lifting a heavy household appliance high enough to permit the floor under such appliance to be cleaned, yet will maintain such elevated appliance in a stable, safe condition.